Abbas Wants A Stick Or The Boot

Says Government Survival At Stake

September 05, 2003|By Tribune Newspapers

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, engulfed in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat that has helped stall a peace plan with Israel, demanded Thursday that legislators grant him more authority or risk seeing his government fall.

"You entrusted me with this," Abbas told the Palestinian parliament. "Either you provide (the prime minister's post) with the capacities of power and support or you take it back."

Abbas and Arafat are fighting over control of nine separate security forces, which the American-backed peace plan known as the road map says should be consolidated under Abbas' control so that he can then wrest away weapons from militant groups.

Palestinian officials have suggested a compromise in the form of a security committee with two heads -- Abbas and Arafat -- but there is no guarantee such an agreement would work.

Palestinians say that American officials have warned them that the peace effort could collapse if Abbas were forced from office. Israel, too, has indirectly expressed support for him, by renewing threats to exile Arafat.

Mohammed al-Hourani, a legislator from Hebron helping to mediate between Arafat and Abbas, said that both men have agreed in principal to a document that outlines the limits of their authority, and could be used to resolve future problems.

"We don't want this conflict to emerge again in three months," he said.

Arafat reluctantly appointed Abbas as prime minister on April 29 under international pressure. U.S. officials unveiled the "road map" the next day.

Legislators are scheduled to meet in private Saturday and again next week, when they could hold a vote of confidence on Abbas' government.

Thursday, Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, arrived at the Palestinian Legislative Council amid a raucous protest by demonstrators opposed to his talks with the Israel and the U.S.

An angry crowd swarmed over his black Mercedes, and security guards armed with AK-47s hustled a visibly shaken Abbas into the building.

A small gang of black-hooded militants from the Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, armed with wooden clubs and hatchets, rushed the building, broke one of the front doors and shattered windows. They showered the driveway and Abbas' car with leaflets demanding his ouster.

It was a brazen show of force for militants in a city occupied by Israeli troops. And while Palestinian officials dismissed them as teen-age thugs, their presence highlighted the despair and frustration felt by people caught up in three years of bloody conflict.

"When the face of the government is not the face of the people, it is time for a divorce," one of the militants said, holding a large picture of Arafat in one hand and spray painting a slogan on the legislative building: "Down with the government of Abu Mazen."